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How racist is the University of Alabama?

Just curious if anyone has any insight on racism at the University of Alabama. While I am considering primarily academic powerhouse schools like Michigan, Illinois and Purdue, Alabama essentially makes it almost free for me to go there. The way I see it, college is a once in a lifetime thing, therefore I would hate to be excluded or marginalized because I am not white or black (I am of Indian decent). I ran a search of racism at UA's newspaper, Crimson White, and found tons of articles about racist incidents. It seems like almost every other week there is some problem. I did the same with Michigan's Michigan Daily, Illinois's Daily Illini and Purdue's Exponent and basically found none. Also why are all fraternity and sorority houses either all white or black? The houses at Michigan, Illinois and Purdue are all integrated. This is what worries me the most, why is Alabama so segregated? They keep talking about the new south, but it still looks like the old. Academically Alabama isn't the greatest but it isn't as awful as most of the nation thinks, so I am not worried about that. It is basically as good as what you make of it. The racism is what really keeps me from considering or even visiting that school. Any insights would be nice. THANKS!

as far as the sorority and frat houses go
people generally segregate themselves naturally
just a fact of human nature that we tend to prefer to associate with others of the same race
if you look at churches and neighborhoods all around the country you will find this is supported

difference is in michigan, illinois, etc integration will be more forced/promoted

I visited the same newspaper site (Crimson White) and searched 'racism' 'racist' 'race' and nothing came up but then i started searching other keywords that would surely bring a result and still nothing so I think their search function is broken/disabled at the moment

Also, keep in mind that blacks commit racial crimes against whites at a far higher rate than vice versa. Only they don't make the newspaper or local new channel very often.

Also why are all fraternity and sorority houses either all white or black? The houses at Michigan, Illinois and Purdue are all integrated.

How did you come to that conclusion? I just checked out 20 fraternities at Michigan. Among those:
8 seemed predominantly white
5 were predominantly (exclusively?) African-American
2 were predominantly (exclusively?) Asian
2 were predominantly (exclusively?) Latino
1 was predominantly (exclusively?) Indian

I'd be surprised if you found a single college campus with a race-blind Greek scene.

But from a purely statistical point of view, you'll probably feel more marginalized at Alabama. At Alabama, 91% of students reported their race as either white or black. It's 61% at Illinois, 66% at Michigan, 68% at Purdue. No surprise that Alabama features more "black and white" thinking.

Agree with others that people tend to socialize with their own race after like, elementary school, but you won't see antagonistic crap like that on a midwest campus. Even being white, I'd get away from the south as quickly as possible. The whole region has a horrid, recent and ongoing problem with racism. No one's gonna give you a hard time at UMich etc. At worst, people are busy doing their own thing.

I hear Alabama is pretty racist in general. I have a asian friend who moved to Alabama temporarily for work. He told me he was denied access to several client's offices that his company works with because of his nationality.

There's a lot of people on here who go to Bama. I don't think they've ever mentioned an issue. B@r is right about Michigan. Many do tend to be segregated.

There are incidents of racism at almost every college. I disagree that it's a southern thing. I have lived in the midwest/great lakes most of my life and I know of racist incidents that have happened on midwest and great lakes campuses as well. If anything, you might want to consider smaller LACs with highly diverse populations.

@Mike1213: You have some really messed up thoughts going on there. You need to reevaluate... pretty much everything you just typed.

OP, I have never been to Alabama, or the University of Alabama, but as previous posters said, the larger percentage of white students you get, generally the more racism you're going to get. That does not mean everyone there is a racist, or that you won't fit in, but that's generally how it works when it comes to PWIs (predominantly white institutions).

I attend Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and I love it here. Do I wish there was more diversity? Absolutely. Have I encountered racism? Absolutely. But as I said, I really enjoy this school and have become friends with people of various racial and cultural backgrounds.

Honestly, I suggest you visit the schools you are considering if you can. Just walk around campus during the day, get a feel for the atmosphere. Talk to a couple non-white students and ask them what they genuinely think.

I really didn't want to touch this topic with a 10 ft poll because any topic on CC which mentions race inevitably turns into a crapfest of ill-informed ignorant posts, but in good conscious I don't want you to get the wrong idea since it seems you are asking a genuine question. Please completely disregard Big10Champ.

In reality, you are unlikely to encounter any open racism at any of those schools, and equally so. Big public universities have very very little open racism. You may very well run into someone who doesn't want to be your friend, doesn't want to talk to you, doesn't want to have anything to do with you purely because of your race. That's not going to be any more likely at Alabama than any other school you mentioned. There is no more enmity for Indians in the South than in the North.

OP, there are a number of students that post on the Alabama forum. And I know that this topic has been discussed on that forum a few times. I would recommend that you go to that forum and read those threads or reask your questions there. It might help!

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